5. When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, with these words:
6. “The Lord God is looking on and truly has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song, when he openly bore witness, saying, ‘And God will have compassion on his servants.’”
7. After the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, “Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?”
8. Answering in the language of his ancestors, he said, “Never!” So he in turn suffered the same tortures as the first.
9. With his last breath he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to live again forever, because we are dying for his laws.”
10. After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put forth his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely stretched out his hands,
11. as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disregard them; from him I hope to receive them again.”
12. Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s spirit, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
13. After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.